Secret deportations: Eight African migrants flown to Cameroon by US authorities

A group of eight migrants from various African nations arrived in Cameroon on Monday after being expelled from the United States, marking the latest in a series of secretive third-country deportations under the Trump administration.

Eight migrants originally from Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia arrived in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Monday, following their expulsion from the United States. This group, consisting of five men and three women, is currently being held by local authorities in the capital. According to US immigration lawyer Alma David and Cameroonian attorney Joseph Fru Awah, the transfer is part of a broader, largely undisclosed immigration strategy by the Trump administration to send foreign nationals to third-party African nations including Eswatini, Rwanda, and Ghana. A United Nations source in Cameroon verified the arrival but noted that no formal agreement between the two nations regarding such transfers has been made public.+1

Legal advocates have raised alarms over the lack of transparency surrounding these flights, with many deportees reportedly possessing US court protections that should have prevented their return to their home countries. Lawyers suggest that sending these individuals to a third country like Cameroon serves as a legal “loophole” to circumvent judicial stays of removal. Joseph Fru Awah, who is assisting the migrants, emphasized the precarious nature of their situation: “That is why the United States did not send them directly to their countries. Because there is cause for concern that they might be harmed, that their lives are threatened.” He added that his immediate focus is “handling their shock” as they face pressure from local authorities to voluntarily return to the nations they originally fled.

This latest flight follows a similar incident on January 14, where nine African migrants from countries such as Zimbabwe and Morocco were secretly flown from Louisiana to Yaoundé. Those earlier deportees have reportedly been detained at a state-owned compound and told they cannot leave unless they agree to repatriation. While the US Department of Homeland Security maintains that it is “applying the law as written” to remove those with no right to remain in the US, critics and human rights activists argue that these murky, often cash-for-deportation deals expose vulnerable individuals to further abuse and deny them due process.

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